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Donne

Essay on the Tragedy of
^Arden of Fevershain**

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

0^

J^N E« SAY

ON THE TRAGEDY OF

J

Being the substance of a paper read at the Meeting

of the Kent Archaeological Society held at

Faversham, in July, 1872, with Notes,

BV

C. E. DONNE, M.A.,

TYair of Faversha?n, and Chaplain to Viscotml
Sydney, G. C.B.

A

PRICE, ONE SHILLING.

LONDON :

RUSSELL SMITH & Co
. HIGHAM, FAVERSHAM.

1873.

^

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive

in 2008 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

littp://www.arcliive.org/details/essayontragedyofOOdonn

A.N BB S^ Y

ON THE TRAGEDY OF

** Mm 4 jliJ^J*sI|am, "

Being the substance of a paper read at the Meeting

of the Kent Archaeological Society held at

Faversham, in July, 1872, with Notes,

By

C. E. DONNE, M.A.,

Vicar of Faversham, and Chaplain to Viscount
Sydney, G.C.B.

PRICE, ONE SHILLING-

LONDON :

RUSSELL SMITH & Co
HIGHAM, FAVERSHAM.

1873.

u

^h jna, rile wretch, that ever I was barn,
ISahtng mijself unto the world a scoru :
^nrl to my friends and hindred all a shame,
Blotting tbcir blood by my uabappy name.

Fro>n Old Ballad " 'The Complamt and Lamentation
of Mistresse Arden of Fever sham."

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Persons represented in the Tragedy.

]Mr. Ardex, of Fcversham
Francklin (his Friend)

MOSBIE

Clarke (a Painter)

Adam Fowle (Landlord of the Flmver dc Luce)

Bradshaw (a Goldsmith)

Michael (Arden's Servant)

Gheene

Richard Reede (a Sailor)

Black Will j

> Murderers
Shakebag )

A. Peentice

A Ferryman

LoED Cheney, and his men

Mayoe of Feveesiiam, and Watch

Alice (Arden's wife)

Susan (Mosbie's sister)

Scene: Fcversham — London and there between

r:?5^

ARDEN OF FEVERSHAM. *

Mr. Thomas Arden "j* was chief comp-
trollerof his Majesty's Customs at Faversham.
He was a jurat X in 1544, and was once
elected Mayor of that town in 1548. He seems
to have been a gentleman of consequence by
being- employed to procure a new Charter for
the said town, upon the dissolution of the
Abbey there. By his marriage with the
daughter-in-law of Sir Edward North, and
his connections with Sir Thomas Cheney,
K.G., Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and
Constable of Queenborough Castle, § he pro-
cured grants from the Crown of a considerable

* Spelt so in the Play, Lut Faversham is the con-cct name —
originally Faurcsfeld (A.S.)

t Jlis signature appears in the Faversham Wardmote Book.

X From Records of Faversham, folio 58, December 22nd, 1550. —
Also Thomas Arden, by cause, ho beyng Juratc, and swomc to
maynteyn the franchises, liberties, and fredoms of the said towno
had, contrarye to his othe, in that behalf, gone aboute and labored
by dyvers wayes and meanes to the uttermost of hys power to
infryndge and undoo the said franchises, liberties and fredoms ;
that, therefore, the said Thomas Arden shall be deposed from the
Benchc, and no more to be juratte of the said townc, but from
hensfoorth to bo utterlyo disfranchised for ever.

§ Sir Thomas Cheney died in 1558, and -was buried in the chancel
of Minster Church. I.sle of Shcppoy. The family of Cheney M'cro
connected collaterally Vi ith the Tudors.

part of the Estate of thelate dissolved Abbey.*
He seems to have been well disposed, t
by his charitable donation of some houses
and land to the Corporation, for the benefit
of the poor, and for an annual sermon to be
preached in commemoration of the Benefac-
tors of the town, in which his charity was to
be recited, and as his words were " In order
to provoke other good men to do the like." $

Arden of Faversham was printed anony-
mously, first in 1592, and performed proba-
bly a year or two earlier. It was reprinted
in 1599 and 1633, and again in 1770, § by
Jacob, who was the first, on the strength of
certain parallel passages, or passages which
he thought parallel, to assign it to Shakes-
peare ; Jacob generally selects mere con-
ventional expressions and common phrases
at the time, in proof of his hypothesis ; but
many contemporary plays written between
1592 and 1600 would stand such a test far
better than Arden does, especially " A Warn-
ing for fair Women," printed in 1599, but
composed and produced several years before

* Yid. riay, Act 1, Sc.l,

t Vid. Preface to Jacob's Arden of Faversliaiii, p. 4.

X This Legacy •was contested and partly set aside afterwards.

§ It was reprinted at Elberfeld in 1S51. The original was not
divided into Acts and Scenes. Tliis division first appears in the
edition of ISol, printed by Sam Lucas, at Elberfeld.

that year. Like Arden, this drama relates to

the murder of a London merchant, named

Sanders, by one Brown, his wife's paramour.

There is among the dramatists of the 1 6th

century, and in the early part of the 17th, a

species of representation^ that forms . a class

by itself, It may be called '' domestic

tragedy," and pieces of this kind were

founded upon comparatively recent events in

England. Of these, besides Arden, and a

"Warning for fair Women," are extant, *

"Two tragedies in one," founded upon the

assassination of a London merchant, of the

name of Beech, by a person called Thomas

Merry, also " The fair Maid of Bristol,"

originating in a recent tragical incident.

The 'Yorkshire tragedy,' a little later, founded

on an event in 1604, was played at the Globe

(Shakespeare's) Theatre, and probably was

revised and touched-up by him. "j*

* For an account of this play, see Beloe's Anecdotes, vol. 1,
p. 380.

t A Yorkshire tragedy, ascribed to Shakespeare, ly Baker,
Steevens, &c. No less than five dramatists, viz : — Greene, Marlowe,
Nash, Peelc, Lodge, and two others (names nuknown) announced
their determination to retire from their calling, on account of
monopoly, which this young man from Stratford-on-Avon secured
for himself. Their envy was not of that kind which Addison calls
"sinless." Shakespeare contributed dramas to Lord Strango's
Company ; to the Company of the Earl of Sussex ; to tho Companies
of the Earl of Worcester and Pembroke, &c.

i^W

A tragedy once ascribed to Shakespeare, *
and at first printed with others among his
unquestioned Plays may be presumed, even
allowing for the rudeness of the time in which
it was written, to have possessed no ordinary
merit ; Professor Tieck, whose Essays on
Shakespeare and translation of his plays
entitled him to give a sound opinion on the
matter, inclined to think that Arden of
Faversham is a genuine w^ork of our great
National poet. Perhaps his judgment would
have been different had he been a native of
England, and not merely an excellent English
scholar. True it is that the speeches in this
Tragedy have in them some passion and
pathos, but there is a great sam.eness, a lack
of variety and contrast. There are no traces
of the active fancy and exuberant art of
Shakespeare. To fathom the bent or depth
of thought, to follow his images, Shakes-
peare requires strict attention in the reader.
Whereas he that runs may read and fully
comprehend Arden of Faversham, allow-
ance indeed being made for the age of the
language in which it is vrritten.

* London Profligal. Sir John Oldcastle. Thomas Lord Cromwell.
The I'liritan, Loerinc. Edward 3rd. >rcrry Devil of Edmonton.
Fair Em. :Miiccdorus. The Birth of Merlin. The two noble
Kinsmen, and other plays have also been fathered on Shakespeare.

The murder of Arden occurred in the time
of Edward vi., but the play was not pub-
lished till 1592.

*' Murderous Michael" was perhaps an early
version of" Arden of Faversham." It was per-
formed before the Queen (Elizabeth) in 1578,
Michael being a very prominent personage,
and one of Arden' s assassins. Possibly
the play might be founded upon the elder
performance, although Michael, in " Arden of
Faversham," is one of the least guilty of the
whole party concerned in the murder ;
Michael's character may be judged of from
the following speech, when contemplating
the murder of Arden, his master.

" I, that should take the weapon in my hand,
And buckler thee from ill intending foes ;
Do lead thee with a wicked fraudful smile,
As unsuspected to the slaughter-house —
So have I sworn to IMosbie and my mistress.
So have I promised to the slaughter-men ;
And should I not deal currently with them,
Their lawless rage would take revenge on me.
I will spurn at mercy for this once.
Let pity lodge where feeble women lie,
I am resolved, and Arden needs must die I "
This tragedy, independent of its local
interest, as connected with the County of
Kent and the town of Faversham, is not

devoid of Archaeological value. It is one of
the earliest English domestic dramas, written
in blank verse. * It is also one of the com-
paratively few plays of the 1 6th century, of
which the plot and action are founded upon
English life and manners. It is founded
upon a home-bred story, t and it represents
the life and the household of a rich country
gentleman. J In its scenes you may find many
features of the stormy days of Edward vi.
and the Protector Somerset. As it is possible
that some of my readers on this occasion,
even if acquainted with George Lillo's §
later drama (finished by Dr. John Floadly)
on the sa7ne subject, may not have looked at
the play which Lillo altered, it may be con-
venient to sketch the plot of Arden. ||
" Alice, the wife of Arden, young, tall, and
well-favored of shape and countenance, is in
love with Mosbie, a man of low extraction,

* Marlowe's tragedy of " Tamberlain the Great" is one of the
first examples extant of a play written almost entirely in blank
verse. Our earliest serious drama — indeed, Lord Eudchurst's
" Ferrex and Porrcx," or " Gorbodiic," is written in that measure ;
but his example was by no means commonly followed. The Blank
verse when employed was mixed up with tou-syllablo ihymc.
Arden of Favcrsham, lioR'ever, is nearly devoid of this admixture.

t Vide Note at end of this Essay.

+ In this particular, its author ranks with ITeywood, many of
whose plays are punly pictures of Enj^lish life at the time.

§ 17o9. Acted at Drury Lane.— Geo. Lillo, author of " Georgj
I'arnwell, " " Fatal Curioaity," &c.

II Vid. Ilollinshead's Chron., p. 1703, Col. 2, and Lewis's
Favcrsham, p. 52.

residing in the same place. Her guilt is the
more flagrant, because not only is her hus-
band a kind and indulgent one, but also a
handsome and prosperous gentleman, whereas
her lover is a soulless wretch, a vulgar and
ugly fellow, a black-swart man, originally a
tailor, but by transmutation like Christopher
Sly's who tell us that he was 'by birth a
pedlar, by education a card maker, by trans-
mutation a bear herd,' by transmutation a
servant to the Lord North. The wife and
her ill-favored lover determine to rid them-
selves of Arden, and lay several plots against
his life, two or three of them are marred un-
expectedly ; but at last the murder was
perpetrated. Their first scheme Vv^as to get
him dispatched in London, whither he went
on business, and in those troublous times
when the distractions and distresses occa-
sioned partly by the change in religion, and
partly by the confusion following on Henry the
Eighth's death,*asicklyboyon thethrone, and
ambitious noblemen striving for the Govern-
ment of him and the realm, threw on society
hundreds of ruffians, ready for any work that

* " The rulers and ministers of justice that sometimes spake for
the common weal, M'erc all gone ! " — The Euyn of a Ream, ballads,
iSrc., p. 159. — " Great and horrible " punishments were appointed for
thieves, but all in vain, because no penalty was severe enough to
deter those from crime who had no other craft." — Utopia, p. 37.

5)^

8

might put money in their purses. Dame
Arden and ex-tailor Mosbie found mur-
J derers as easily as Macbeth does, when he
wishes to get rid of an inconvenient and a
suspicious, if not too knowing, a friend.
They employed three assassins. Black Will,
Shakebag, and Greene, together with
Michael, Arden' s servant, for their purpose.
Black Will and Shakebag were professionals
in the art of killing, Greene considered
himself wronged by Arden, to whom the
Protector had granted some land, hitherto
occupied by him. And here is a sign of the
times, for it was land once appertaining
to Faversham Abbey that Greene lost, and
Arden got ; the Protector Somerset, like
the late most dread sovereign Henry, bestow-
ing liberally to others, both goods and land,
that never lawfully were his to have, to hold
or give to others.

The bribe to Michael, the serving man,
was the hand of Mosbie's sister Susan, who
being, it would seem, a servant of all work in
Arden' s house, made herself very useful
when he was knocked on the head. The
London plot failed ; the ruffians, however,
followed their intended victim to Faversham,
intending to do for him in the Isle of Sheppy,

but they are once more disappointed.
Arden meeting on his road * with Lord
Cheney and his men, who are too many in
number for the plotters to do their errand
safely for themselves. Thus thwarted, they
came to the conclusion, that there is no place
like home t foi" earning their money. So
they wait, though vexed with one another,
and with the perverse Arden himself
especially, for not coming (like Mrs. Bonds'
ducks) to be killed, until they see him safe to
his own door. Arden, most unaccountably,
has taken Mosbie into some sort of favour,
so the latter has no difficulty in getting his
agents into the house.

" They conveyed Black Will into Master Arden's
house, putting him into a closet at the end of his
parlour. Before this, they had sent out of the house all
the servants, those excepted which were privy to
the devised murder. Then went Mosbie to the
door, and there stood in a nightgown of silk
girded about him, and this was betwixt six and
seven of the clock at night. Master Arden, having
been at a neighbour's house of his, named Dumpkin,
and having cleared certain reckonings betwixt them,
came home, and finding Mosbie standing at the door, X
asked him if it were supper time ? I think not — (quoth

* In the Broomy close, near Shcppey Ferry.

t They resolved to slay him iu his own house, during St.
Valentine's fair.

X Part of Arden's house is still in existence, and the gateway
through which his body was carried.

^.

^f^

lO

IMosbie) — it is not yet ready.* Then let us go and play
a game at the tables f in the mean season, said Arden ;
and so they went straight into the parlour : and as they
came by through the hall, his wife was walking there,
and Master Arden said : How now, Mistress Alice ?
But she made small answer to him. In the meantime,
one chained the wicket-door of the entry. When they
came into the parlour, IMosbie sat down on the bench,
having his face towards the place where Black Will
stood. Then Michael stood at his master's back, hold-
ing a candle, to shadow Black Will, that Arden might
by no means perceive him coming forth. In their play,
Mosbie said thus : (the Avatchword for Black Will's
coming forth) " Now, may I take you, Sir, if I will 7
Take me — (quoth Arden) — which way ? " With that,
Black Will stepped forth, and cast a towel % about his
neck, so to stop his breath and strangle him, — then
Mosbie, having at his girdle, a pressing-iron § of fourteen
pounds weight, struck him on the head with the same,
so that he fell down, and gave a great groan, insomuch
that they thought he had been killed." ||

• In the play this conversation is with the wife : —

Arden : " Come, Alice, is our supper ready yet ? "

Alice : " It will, by then you have play'd a game at tables ! "

t Taiiles. — This game was in use among the Romans, and was in
all probability borrowed from tlium by the Anglo-Saxons. Vid.
" Wright's Ilistory of Domestic Manners during the Middle Ages,"
p. 218. — It was a game somewhat resembling Backgammon played
with dice. — When he plays at tables — chides the dice. " Loves
Labor Lost," Act 5, Sc. 2, — termed also " Traytrip in Twelfth
Night,'' Act 2, Sc. 5. — Nay then, two trays, "Loves Labor Lost,"
Act 5, Sc. 2.

X A napkyn. — " Wardmote Book."

^ A tailor's iron. — Mosbie : " There's for the pressing-iron you
told me of." — Mosbie also used a dagger. — "Wardmote Book," and
a knife, " Old Ballad."

II Ilolinshcad's Chronicle, p. 1703, col. 2.

II

They now all lend a hand to the murder ;
Mrs. Arden seemingly giving the coup-de-
grace, for why should this marplot any longer
hinder Mosbie's love and hers ? * The body
is secretly conveyed to a field behind the
house, t but bloody stains are left on the floor,
and it being winter time, the steps of the
murderers are imprinted on the snow, that
had suddenly fallen before the murder, and
inconsiderately left off, just as it might have
done Black Will and Co. service by hiding
the footmarks. Guests have been invited
by the now late Mr. Arden, and arrive rather
too punctually for the interest of the sur-
vivors in the house, and worse than guests,
the Mayor of Faversham with the watch at his
heels arrives too, making particular inquiries
for Black Will, whom his Worship has in his
pocket a Council's warrant to apprehend.
Concealment is no longer possible, the body
is found, Mrs. Arden and Mosbie confess,
and together with Susan and Michael (whose
wish to be united is gratified by their being
hung together) % are led forth to execution.

* Alice . Give me the weapon !

Take this for hind'riug Mosbie's love and mine.

t To a field next to the Churchyard called the Ambry Croft.

\ Susan : Seeing no hope on earth, in heaven is my hope.
Michael : Faith, I care not, seeing I die with Susan.

12

No one Indeed of the parties concerned in
this4bul and unnatural murder dies in his or
her bed. Bradshaw * was executed in Faver-
sham, and the epilogue informs us that Shake-
bag t was eventually murdered in South-
wark. Black Will J was burnt in Flushing at a
stake ; Greene was hanged at Ospringe ;
and Dame Arden was burnt at Canterbury §
hanging in those days being thought too
easy a death for women.

The writer of the Epilogue seems to have

thought that Master Arden was served as

such a sacrilegious varlet deserved to be,

for he adds to his brief Newgate calendar —

" But this above the other, the rest is to be noted,

Arden lay murdered in that plot of ground, !|

* Bradshaw seems to have been innocent of the murder. — " Was
I ever privy to your intent or no ? " — He -was hung in chains.

t Shakebag — his real name was Loosebag. He was born at Sea-
salter, and bred to the water. — ""Wardmote Book."

X In Registers of the Privy Council, lijth June, lool, there is a
letter to Sir William Godolphinc Kuight, of thanks for his diligence
in the apprehension of Black Will.

§ Petit Treason, according to the statute, 25 Ed. iii., c. 2, may
happen three ways by a servant killing his master, a wife her
hiishand, or an ecclesiastical person (eithtr secular or regular) his
superior, to whom he owes faith and obedience.

Tlie punishment of Petit Treason, in a man, is to be drawn and
hanged, and in a womcm to be drawn and burned. The idea of which
latter punishment seems to have been handed down to us by tiie laws
of tlie ancient Druids, which condemned a woman to be burned for
murdering her husband, and it is now the usual punishment for all
sorts of treasons committed by those of the female sex. — Blackstone.
Lk. 4, Ch. 14,

The stat. 9, Geo. 4, c. 31, however, enacted every ofTence deemed
Petit Treason before the passing of the Act, shall to deemed to be
murder.

II Church lands. Vid. Act 4, Sc. 4, Act 5, Sc. 6.

cm

13

Which he by force and violence held from Readc ;
And in the grass his body's print was seen
For years and more after the deed was done ! "

The Epilogue in these words resembles
closely the winding up of a Greek Chorus,
telling us after almost everybody is killed : —

Such are the ways of the Gods,

Many things oddly contriving,

At their end strangely arriving,

What they expected and wished for.

Unlucky mortals are dished for,

A game quite of even and odds»

People die when we looked they should marry.

And all matters plotted miscarry.
Those who are of opinion that this drama
is the production of Shakespeare * have laid
stress on the name Arden ; the maiden name of
Shakespeare's mother was Arden, "j* and so
might have attracted his attention. The
Earl of Leicester's % players were in Faver-
sham in 1590, and if Shakespeare was con-
nected with the Earl of Leicester at this time,
this fact would throw an air of probability
over the claim for the Shakespearian Author-
ship of this Play. The plot also is taken
from a book which Shakespeare had carefully

* Vid. Jacob's "Arden of Faversham," ji. 6. The preface to the
Elbcrfeld Ed. Chas. Knight's " rictorial Shakespeare," and Edin-
burgh Review, No. 144, p. 471.

t A name (in her case) probably derived from some remote
ancestor who had emigrated from the forest of Ardennes.

X Vid. Notes from the llecords of Faversham, by J. M. Cowper
F.II.S., p. 27.

14

read — the ** Chronicle of HoHnshead." I do
not think that " Arden of Feversham '* is
Shakespeare's work ; but it is by no means
improbable that he may have thought it
worth his while to take a hint or two from it,
which may account for some " resemblance."
The very ascription of it to Shakespeare,
though made so long after his death, shows
it to have been a piece of mark in its day.
There is a sort of dawn of Shakespeare in
Mosbie's speech. Act 3, Sc. 5. *

Disturbed thoughts drive me from company,
And dry my marrow with their watchfulness ;
Continual trouble of my moody brain,
Fccbles my body by excess of drink,
And nips me as the bitter north-east wind
Doth check the tender blossoms in the spring.
Well fares the man howe'er his cates do taste,
That tables not with foul suspicion ;
And he but pines amongst his delegates.
Whose troubled mind is stufif'd with discontent.
My golden time was when I had no gold,
Though then I wanted, yet I slept secure ;
My daily toil begat my night's repose,
My night's repose made daylight fresh to me ;
But since I climb'd the top bough of the tree,
And sought to build my nest among the clouds.
Each gentle stirry gale doth shake my bed,
And make me dread my downfall to the earth !
Villi whither doth contemplation carry me ?
The way I seek to find where pleasure dwells —
Is hedg'd behind me that I cannot back ;
]jut needs must on, although to danger's gate ! f

• The blank-Ycrse metre of this passage bears a close resem-
blance to that of the " Merry Devil of Edmonton," also attributed to
Shakespeare.

t Vide Macbeth, Act 3, Sc. 4—" I am in blood stept in so far," &c

15
Local Allusions and Notes.

Ac/ I, Sc. I. — Flower dc Luce, an Inn, formerly situated
in Abbey Street, nearly opposite Arden's
house.

Ac/ I, Sc. 1. — Farm at Bocton. — Boughton sub. Blean,
looking down on Canterbury. Boughton -hill
is noticed by Lydgate in an additional Can-
terbury tale.

Ac/ 2, Sc, 1. — Lion (Inn) at Sittingbourne. At this Inn
an entertainment was given to Henry 5th,
as he returned from the battle of Agincourt,
in 1415.

Ac/ 2, Sc. 2. — To the Nags Head. — This Tavern was
the fictitious scene of the consecration of
the Protestant bishops at the accession of
Queen Elizabeth.

Ac/ 3, Sc, 1. — " IMethinks I see them with their bolster'd
hair." — Bolstered means blood-besmeared.
See Macbeth, Ac/ 4. — " The blood bol/end
Banquo," which is the same word.

Ac/ 3, Sc. 4. — Rainham Down. — The country near
Rainham seems in the i6th century to have
been so open as to have entitled it to the
appellation of a Down. — In Shakespearian
times this spot had a very bad reputation.
It is spelt Raymon Down in the old Ballad
on Arden.

Ac/ 3, Sc. 4. — The Salutation in Billingsgate, a famous
Tavern in Ben Jonson's time. It is named
in " Bartholomew Fayre."

Ac/ 3, Sc. 6. — Jack of Feversham — probably a well-
known coward. — " Raw tricks of these
bragging Jacks." — Merchant of Ven., in, 4.

i6

Ac/ 4, Sc. 3. — iiock Monday. — The holiday, called
Hock Monday, or Hoke day, German —
" Hoch INIontag," — was usually observed on
the day following the 2nd Sunday after
Easter-day. John Rouse, or Ross, the
historian, of Warwickshire, in which county
the holiday was in the i6th and 17th cen-
turies (if not later) duly observed, says that
on high or holy Monday, the people, both
men and women, divided into parties, used
to hold a rope across the road, barring the
way and pulling to them the passers by who
were obliged to pay a toll, the sum of which
was supposed to be applied to pious uses.
There was a Hock Tuesday devoted to
similar purpose. The day appears to have
varied in different places. Some have sup-
posed it to have been a festival commemora-
tive of the massacre of the Danes in the
reign of Athelstan, the Unready, which took
placeonthe 13th November, 1002 ; others that
it perpetuated the memory of deliverance of
England from the Government of the Danes,
by the death of Hardicanute, on Tuesday, the
8th of June, 1041. Neither of these dates
agrees with the day following, shortly after
Easter day. There was, however, an ordi-
nance of Ethelrcd which transferred it from
a winter or summer month to the 2nd week
after Easter, and at that time the festival
was held at Coventry, at least on both
Monday and Tuesday following Easter
Sunday, the time answering very closely to
the Quindena Paschoe of the Latin Church.

17

Acf 4, Sc. 4. — " He is coming from Shurland. " —
Shurland is in the Isle of Sheppey. Mar-
garet, the only daughter of Sir Robert
Shurland, married William, son of Sir
Alexander Cheney, which entitled Sir Alex-
ander to this Manor, of which he died
possessed, in the 8lh year of Edward 3rd,
anno 1323. — Shurland Castle figures in
Ingoldsby's amusing " Grey Dolphin."

Ac/ 5, Sc. 1 . — " Enter the Mayor of Faversham." — Jacob
in his list carries up the Mayor's names to
1292.

Aci 5, Sc. I. — " I saw him walking behind the Abbey." —
Faversham Abbey (Cluniac) was founded by
King Stephen and his Queen. They were
buried in the Church of the Abbey (S.
Saviour's.)

Ac/ 5, Sc. 4. — Therefore must I in some Oyster boat, at
last be fain to go abroad some hoy, and
so to Flushing. — The Faversham oysters
(says Hasted) are of the same kind as those
which were so highly esteemed by the
Romans. — The Dutch give a preference to
these oysters of the Faversham grounds
before all others along this coast.

Act 5, 8c. 4. — " The Constable had twenty warrants to
apprehend me ; besides that, I robbed him
and his man once at Gads hill.'' — Gads hill
means Rogues hill. As early as 1588, the
ballad of Gads hill (by Faire) celebrates its
nocturnal pastimes. —Clavell's "Recantation,"
published in 1634, speaks of
" Gad's Hill, and those

Red tops of mountains where good people lose
Their ill-kept pnrses."
Yid. 1st part of Henry iv., Act I, Sc. 2.

i8

Ac/ 5, Sc. 5. — A/ice : " Let my death make amends for
all my sin." — Vide " JSIiich qdo about
nothing^'' Act ^, Sc. i, " Death is the fairest
cover for her shame."

Act 5, Sc. 6. — Ospringe, in Kent. — Ospringe adjoins
Faversham. — In an old Ballad on the same
subject as this tragedy (date uncertain, vide
J'^vans's old Ballads, vol. 3, p. 217) it is spelt
Osbridge, as also in the 1633 Ed. of this
play. — The ballad above-mentioned (Evans
says), is reprinted from an old black letter
copy. It must have been greatly modernised,
for the language or metre in which it is
written is neither the measure nor the
speech of the i6th or 17th century. It
remains, therefore, a question difficult to
decide whether the play is indebted to an
older form of this ballad.

Faversham Theatre. — " Arden of Feversham" I
have been informed, has often been acted at the Faver-
sham Theatre, especially under the Baker's, Dowton's
and Penley's management. Mr. Dowton, the great
actor of old men and eccentric comedy at Drury Lane,
married one of Mrs. Baker's daughters. By this
marriage he became possessed of most of Mrs. Baker's
Theatres, viz., Faversham, Canterbury Folkestone, and
Hastings. Mr. Buckstone, the celebrated comedian,
belonged to this little circuit when quite a young man,
and was in it for about twelve months. In the same
company was also Thomas Sidney Cooper, who is now
a wealthy and popular R.A., he being at that time a
boy scene painter. — Faversham Theatre originally stood
where the entrance gates to the Railway Station are
now placed.

^

19

Title of Play. — " The lamentable and true tragedy of
M. Arden of Fcversham, in Kent. — London : Printed for
Edward White, dwelling at the lyttle North Dore of Paules
Church, at the sign of the Gun, 1592." — Reprinted
by J. and J. March, for Stephen Doorne, bookseller at
Faversham, 1770. — (Printing was not introduced into
Faversham till 1770.) — Turning to the titles of earlier
plays we find them to have been derived from very
various sources. There was the strictly classical drama,
such as Gascoigne's " Jocasta" : a free version of the
" Phxnician Women," of Euripides. There was the
" Damon and Pythias," of Edwardes, which, though
as unclassical a play as it is possible to conceive in its
fable and characters, is yet derived from a Greek story,
and the scene laid at Syracuse. There were plays also
but little removed in form from their predecessors — the
religious plays, entitled " INIysteries and Moralities,"
and which as in the case of " The Four P's " were
employed as polemical satires against the Church of
Rome. There were many tragedies founded upon our
Chroniclers, Sir Thomas More, Holingshed, Hall, and
RastrcU's " Past-time of people," or Lord Buckhurst's
" Mirrour for Magistrates." "Arden of Feversham,"
however, belongs to no one of these classes. It is founded
upon a home-bred story, giving a picture of English
life at the time, and as such I have thought it worthy of
this brief notice.

/

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